Speed cameras to target leadfoots at 35 B.C. intersections

Cameras that will automatically send out speeding tickets are coming to 35 intersections across B.C.

The provincial government announced Tuesday that most of the intersections soon to get the automated speed-detection systems are located through the Lower Mainland, with as many as 12 in Vancouver. Other cities include Nanaimo and Kelowna.

The Ministry of Public Safety analyzed speed and crash data from the 140 intersections that currently have red-light cameras, which are set to monitor speed but do not have the automation to send out tickets.

Here are the 35 intersections getting speed-detection tech. The cameras will trigger based off vehicles driving "well over" the listed limit, take vehicle registration info and a ticket will be sent in the mail. 140 intersections got red-light cameras in Aug. @BlackPressMediapic.twitter.com/lFEiXSiXYB

“We have a record number of crashes happening – more than 900 a day in our province – and about 60 per cent of the crashes on our roads are at intersections,” Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said in a statement.

“We’ve taken time to systematically pinpoint the locations linked to crashes and dangerous speeds that are best suited to safely catching, ticketing and changing the behaviours of those who cause carnage on B.C. roads.”

The new cameras will register the speed of every vehicle driving through the 35 intersections – including during green lights – and ticket the registered owners of vehicles that go beyond the listed speed limit.

To discourage high speeds, Farnworth said neither the government nor police will disclose the speed threshold that triggers the new cameras.

Warning signs will be set up at the intersections this summer.

Speed detection marks second phase of NDP government’s crackdown

The latest speed detection systems follow the province’s phase in of red-light cameras in August 2018.

Those cameras operate 24-7, and can ticket drivers that run red lights. Farnworth found himself defending the system after it was compared to photo radar, a program that ended in 2001 and involved cameras detecting speeders in unmarked vans.

At the time, a Research Co. poll suggsted 70 per cent of British Columbians supported red-light cameras.